Lakshmi Voelker-Binder has dedicated her life to creating accessible paths to wellness. By creating chair yoga, she was able to bring adaptive fitness and exercise programs to those who could not benefit from traditional methods of physical activity due to age or limiting physical condition.
She created Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga™ in 1982 when one of her thirty-something students was stricken with arthritis and could no longer get down on the floor to practice Yoga.
In addition to adapting the poses for use on a chair, she has modified them to consider the fact that everyone has a different level of flexibility (or range of motion). Therefore, LVCY™ is presented in multiple posture levels so you can adapt them to your personal needs. She has even accounted for varying degrees of flexibility in your upper and lower body as well as your right and left sides. This innovative fitness approach makes her chair yoga programs suitable for all ages and all fitness levels.
Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga has had great success with cancer patients both physically and mentally. Research associated with yoga and its benefits on cancer patients has involved a variety of factors such as various cancer types, stages of cancer, and treatment levels. The outcomes show a steady stream of positive effects on cancer patients and survivors that include improved sleep quality, decreased depression, reduced stress and anxiety, less cancer-related distress, physiological improvements, decreased pain, and an overall better quality of life. Patients experience different levels of improvement depending on the cancer type and stage, and at the point in which the patient begins participating in yoga therapy.
She has studied, practiced, and taught Yoga and other Eastern disciplines since 1969. From her early years, she integrated these disciplines with Western health concepts. Her focus has always been to improve her students’ health and wellness by making the integration of these disciplines accessible to the broadest audience possible.
Lakshmi Voelker-Binder, YT, E-RYT 500, KYTA, YA, IAYT is a certified Kripalu Yoga instructor, a member of the Yoga Alliance and International Association of Yoga Therapists, and holder of other certifications.
In 1999, she authored and produced her widely acclaimed “Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga: The Sitting Mountain Series” CD cassette. Following the success of her CD, she then created the first Get Fit Where You Sit!® DVD Video, a series of innovative Chair Yoga Fitness and Exercise DVDs in 2007. She made breakthroughs in two areas: extensive step-by-step instruction of each class and providing multiple levels of flexibility so all poses are accessible.
Lakshmi certifies Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga™ teachers (LVCYTs). She has certified over 1800 people worldwide.
Lakshmi also works extensively as a private Yoga therapist who has taught and developed various Yoga classes and teacher training programs. She has led Yoga and Zen meditation as well as dolphin swim and whale research retreats in the U.S. and Mexico. She is a published photographer and modeled for the internationally known sculptor, John Kennedy.
Lakshmi was a longtime member of The National League of American Pen Women, Inc. as author and lecturer. She has written numerous papers and articles expressing more than 35 years of studies and practices of various forms of Yoga and Eastern disciplines. Lakshmi integrates her intuition and humor into a special friendship with her students and community.
Her very first yoga teacher was Anjali Joseph. Lakshmi was 18 when she took her first yoga class with Anjali in an adult education course in Amityville, Long Island, NY.
Additionally, Lakshmi has studied with other masters from many traditions -f rom India, Japan, Tibet, Taiwan, Korea, and China. She also spent 12 years working in a hospital. She has taken the best from the best to create Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga™.
She was given the name Lakshmi 24 years ago by Swami Muktananda of the Siddha Yoga lineage. The Goddess Lakshmi is the revered Goddess of Abundance and Prosperity.
Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga™ is based on the 5000-year-old yoga postures (called asanas) and breathing techniques plus other Eastern and Western movements her students find beneficial. Lakshmi has modified these poses for the chair making the health and fitness benefits accessible to everyone.
Your level of flexibility may vary from day-to-day; so, vary your posture levels to ones that are comfortable for you while practicing chair yoga. Remember, that no matter the level of flexibility you achieve on any given day, you are receiving all the health benefits of Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga™.
In addition to the postures and movements, these chair yoga classes are a more complete form of exercise than most because they incorporate proper breathing. You learn beneficial breathing techniques that are a key aspect of reaching optimum health. These deep breathing techniques more fully oxygenate your body and massage your organs. This improves your energy and mental clarity while reducing pain and anxiety. Following the breathing techniques, not only during your chair yoga, but throughout your daily life, significantly enhances your health and well-being.
Check the website getfitwhereyousit.com to locate a teacher in your area, purchase her DVD, register for her Web Wellness site (40+ classes available through any browser), or become a Lakshmi Chair Yoga teacher.
Lakshmi Voelker
[email protected]
Bruce Binder
[email protected]
760.774.1752
Huntington Beach, California
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